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OP-EDDING.
Each morning at first sunbeam/I go op-edding rather than dream/and once as a trick/I wrote an opening limerick/and you all really need to calm down about rhyme scheme.
Robert Samuelson: The financial market is not the economy. Repeat: The financial market is not the economy. What matters is not merely the direction of the ticker on CNBC -- though that matters enormously to the sort of people who do financial journalism -- but whether the current crises spill over into job losses and wage growth and other elements of the broader economic moment. Samuelson is more optimistic on our ability to dodge that future than I am, but the underlying point of his piece is a good one: We live in a society, not a financial market. It's the must-read of the day.
David Ignatius: Yesterday was a good day in Iraq. The UN-negotiated compromise in Kirkuk has headed off -- at least for the moment -- one of the most dangerous eventualities, and suggested some rational action on the part of the players. Whether the Kirkuk agreement has much implication for national reconciliation is unclear, but a columnist can hope.
Ruth Marcus: The Iowa Caucus doesn't make any sense. It is only important because we in the media deem it so. I will let the implications of this insight just hang out for a moment.
Harold Meyerson: What would Jesus do? Probably not what the Republicans are doing. Indeed, he might smite them down for their immigration rhetoric alone.
Michael Gerson: We need to do something in Darfur. But I'm not really sure what.
COMMENTS (6)
Shorter Ruth Marcus:
I, and folks I socialize with, ought to be winnowing the Presidential candidates rather than those annoying voters.
Posted by: Petey | December 19, 2007 9:32 AM
I think Samuelson oversimplifies a great deal.
There is a vast gap of perception between the real economy of production and jobs and the financial economy of loans and investments.
Real econonmy? Huh? The two are inextricably linked, and loans and investments are the foundation of economic growth. Almost all wealth creation is based on debt, and if the debt and loan system breaks down (which includes people not paying back their debt), the economy breaks down.
Check out this vid if you have a chance. The part most relevant to the housing market begins at 24:00, but it's all good.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&hl=en
Posted by: blah2 | December 19, 2007 10:49 AM
There’s nothing wrong with your rhyme scheme. It’s your meter that’s fingers-on-the-blackboard painful. Getting the meter right is called scansion and it’s as easy as tapping your toe. Getting the rhymes right is much harder – once you’ve got those down, you can fix the meter in a minute. Just try. It’s much more fun.
Dear Ezra, we love all you do.
You’re clever and handsome, it’s true.
Just put your mind to it,
We know you can do it,
Make your lim’ricks scan all the way through.
Posted by: Bloix | December 19, 2007 10:54 AM
Someone wrote of Ezra's previous attempt at a limerick: a limerick is composed of anapests No, actually, the basic foot of the limerick is the amphibrach. Lines 3 and 4 are sometimes straight anapests, but often catalectic amphibrachs. I just thought I'd point this out.
Posted by: Herschel | December 19, 2007 10:56 AM
I had a very different reaction to Samuelson's column. He seemed to be saying that all is well - that some people and institutions who made bad investments will lose money, but it won't spill over into the real economy. That, he says, is because the underlying problem is just a liquidity crunch, which the Fed will deal with by lending more money, restoring confidence in the markets.
But as Krugman says, this isn't a liquidity crisis, it's a solvency crisis. And
If I have to choose between believing Paul Krugman, and believing Robert J. Samuelson who doesn't even have a bachelor's in economics, I'm going with Krugman.
Posted by: low-tech cyclist | December 19, 2007 11:51 AM
"If I have to choose between believing Paul Krugman, and believing Robert J. Samuelson who doesn't even have a bachelor's in economics, I'm going with Krugman."
Why not get the best of both worlds: Paul Krugman+Robert Samuelson=Paul Samuelson!
(Of course, if you use the wrong recipe, you get Paul Craig Roberts.)
Posted by: Henderstock | December 19, 2007 12:55 PM